Apple design chief Jonathan Ive is knighted

Jonathan Ive receives royal honours before talking on the design mantra for Apple products

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Said to currently be working on the iPhone 5 and the heavily rumoured Apple iTV television sets, Jonathan Ive has been knighted for services to design

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of product design and the mastermind behind the styling on gadgets such as the iPhone, iPad and iMac has been knighted for his services to design and enterprise.

British born, the newly titled Sir Jonathan was long regarded as one of Steve Jobs’ closes confidents at Apple with the pair combining on a number of occasions to bring the world a selection of industry and even generation defining gadgets including the iPod, MacBook Air and the dominant iPad tablets.

Describing the occasion as "really thrilling and particularly humbling,” Ive, Apple's Senior Vice-President of Industrial Design, received the honour from Princess Anne before revealed the pair had discussed the royal’s use of the iPad.

Praising his British heritage despite living in the US for the better part of two decades, Ive told The Telegraph he was “the product of a very British design education” before suggested that Apple products are consumer tools “and we don’t want design to get in the way.

”Even in high school, I was keenly aware of this remarkable tradition that the UK had of designing and making," Ive said. "It's important to remember that Britain was the first country to industrialise, so I think there's a strong argument to say this is where my profession was founded."

On Apple he added: "We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable, that leave you with the sense that that's the only possible solution that makes sense. Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products.”

Would Apple’s high-end products be as popular without the iconic styling of Sir Jonathan Ive or do people pay for the sheer beauty of the Cupertino based company’s products? Let us know what you think via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.